Comments on: Did the Fed’s Stunning Lack of Diversity Cause the Housing Crisis? http://www.diversityinc.com/ask-the-white-guy/the-housing-crisis-and-the-business-case-for-diversity/ DiversityInc: Diversity and the Bottom Line Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:27:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Weiwen Ng http://www.diversityinc.com/ask-the-white-guy/the-housing-crisis-and-the-business-case-for-diversity/comment-page-1/#comment-2244 Weiwen Ng Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:24:40 +0000 http://diversityinc.com/?p=14276#comment-2244 I think it’s more than just diversity management. Economists have become too wed to mathematical models in many cases. The Fed would have discounted evidence from people on the ground as anecdotal. More diversity in the economics profession alone won’t do that, although it wouldn’t hurt. Economics methods are still evolving, and they need to evolve.

Certainly fewer people like Alan Greenspan would also have helped. There’s a very good case to be made that there was a serious case of groupthink going on, centered on Mr. Greenspan.

In any case, the Fed alone could probably not have averted the crisis. The crisis started in the private sector. It was not clear which organization had oversight powers, and it’s not clear that the Fed alone could have stepped up its regulatory powers and averted or ameliorated it. Of course, thanks to Mr. Greenspan, the Fed most likely wouldn’t have done so even if it thought something bad was goinn on.

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